CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
260 km from Royan to Royan, about 5 h 36 of riding. It goes by way of La citadelle et le fort Paté et Médoc de B, Jurisdiction of Saint-Emilion and back through La citadelle et le fort Paté et Médoc de B. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Cordouan is a lighthouse standing alone on a rock bank in the mouth of the Gironde estuary, seven kilometres or so out to sea, and you cannot ride to it. The lighthouse is a boat trip away from Royan or from the Médoc side at Le Verdon-sur-Mer, and only in season and when the tide and swell permit.
Read the complete Cordouan Lighthouse write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cordouan Lighthouse is where the day begins. Next is La citadelle et le fort Paté et Médoc de B.
The Gironde estuary is wide enough here to feel like an inland sea, and Vauban saw it as the gateway to Bordeaux that needed a lock. His answer, at the end of the seventeenth century, was a triangle of fortifications: the citadel at Blaye on the right bank, Fort Médoc on the left bank at Cussac, and between them Fort Paté, a squat stone tower built on an island in the middle of the river. Together they could cross their fire over the shipping channel, and today they share a place on the UNESCO list of Vauban's works. The citadel of Blaye is the most impressive of the three, a fortified town in its own right, with ramparts, gates and old barracks set high on a bluff above the water.
Read the complete La citadelle et le fort Paté et Médoc de B write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
La citadelle et le fort Paté et Médoc de B comes up 76 km in. Next is Jurisdiction of Saint-Emilion.
Saint-Émilion is a wine village that looks like a stage set, with steep, cobbled lanes tumbling down a limestone hillside, golden stone houses, and a bell tower rising above the rooftops. The UNESCO listing covers not just the village but its whole jurisdiction, eight parishes of vineyards around it, recognising a landscape in which vines have been cultivated since Roman times. The village grew around the hermitage of Émilion, a Breton monk who lived in a cave here in the eighth century, and its most remarkable monument is the monolithic church, carved out of the rock beneath the bell tower.
Read the complete Jurisdiction of Saint-Emilion write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
152 km in you reach Jurisdiction of Saint-Emilion. Next is back through La citadelle et le fort Paté et Médoc de B.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete La citadelle et le fort Paté et Médoc de B write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through La citadelle et le fort Paté et Médoc de B, late in the day. Next is Cordouan Lighthouse.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cordouan Lighthouse write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Cordouan Lighthouse. That is the ride.
Cordouan Lighthouse → La citadelle et le fort Paté et Médoc de B is 87 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
La citadelle et le fort Paté et Médoc de B → Jurisdiction of Saint-Emilion is 65 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Jurisdiction of Saint-Emilion → back through La citadelle et le fort Paté et Médoc de B is 65 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through La citadelle et le fort Paté et Médoc de B → Cordouan Lighthouse is 87 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.